“Let’s not equate college admission with college readiness. The skills needed to graduate from high school and get into college have surprisingly little in common with those needed to manage, much less thrive, away from home in an undergraduate setting.”- Lisa Damour

Just because our children have graduated from high school does not mean that they are ready to live on their own. Let alone take care of themselves, concentrate on advanced studies, and navigate the complex and high stakes world of college life.

Borrowed money pays for this?

“Who thought it was a good idea to send you off to school?” It’s not always easy to draw the line between typical teenage mistakes and a building meltdown.”

It is far easier as a parent to allow our child to go to school rather than face the emotional toil and drama needed to convince them of the need to take a step back and consider their own strengths and limitations. And who among us wants to be “that parent” whose child “isn’t ready?”

And if your child isn’t ready, why would you want to finance their college experiment with borrowed funds? The decision to send a child that is not ready is bad enough; to go into debt to pay for it is something else again.

Earn while you learn is a great model that helps your graduate develop skills along with personal responsibility and avoid creating a large amount of college debt. Many of our companies offer tuition reimbursement and flexible shifts.

Critical thinking is recognizing and challenging assumptions. The assumption that your child is ready for college is one that all of us as parents needs to consider.

Going into debt to pay for college is another assumption that deserves a good hard look by us so that our graduates do not start off life saddled with student loan debt so large that they cannot affords to support themselves.

We thank Lisa Damour and the New York Times Parenting Blog for starting this conversation. You can see Lisa’s piece here.